A Drone Fell Out of the Sky Over Midtown Manhattan

Is no one policing the skies over New York City? Days after two men parachuted into Manhattan without detection, someone's drone fell from the sky and nearly injured a man. It's dangerous out there, folks. Maybe helmets are necessary from here on out.

Someone was walking around Manhattan on Monday during rush hour when a three-pound drone helicopter nearly hit him, according to the story given to ABC 7's Jim Hoffer. The machine was recording video from high in the Manhattan sky around Grand Central Station before it crashed into the ground below. For what purpose? That remains a mystery.

There are no regulations allowing domestic drone use. And yet, people have taken to the skies to record New Yorkers from above before. New York City-filmmaker Nicolas Doldinger produced beautiful video with a drone flying around New York earlier this summer:

Was this new videographer a snooper or just an artsy copycat? The video was never returned to the owner so, if it was an artist's home project, it was never given the benefit of post-production. And, for the record, the footage isn't nearly as nice as Doldinger's work.

This is to say nothing of the two men who were caught on surveillance video parachuting into Manhattan's financial district. Police are determining whether the two men, who were seen wearing matching helmets and suits, jumped from a plane or from the top of a building. Either way, Manhattan is a dangerous place to go skydiving. Don't do that.

So, really: does no one respect the FAA anymore? First it was the soon-to-be-liberated cellphones during takeoff, then mystery men falling from the sky, and now this.